1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, an image recording method and an image recording program stored on a computer readable medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, an image recording method and an image recording program stored on a computer readable medium for assisting a person who makes a diagnosis of a person under diagnosis.
2. Related Art
An information processing apparatus has been proposed which records an image in association with a position of a line of sight of a user which is detected, by a head-mounted line of sight detector, at the time when the image is recorded or reproduced, so as to generate an index of image information search, for example, as disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 07-200632 (Patent Document 1). According to the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1, the information processing apparatus detects the position of the line of sight directed towards the image by the user of the head-mounted line of sight detector, and records the image in association with the detected position of the line of sight. Subsequently, the information processing apparatus analyzes the relation between the image and line of sight to obtain the coordinate of the point which the user looks at based on the detected position of the line of the sight, and extracts a partial image, from the image, at which the user looks at. Based on the extracted image, the information processing apparatus generates the index for image retrieval.
According to the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1, however, a plurality of images are recorded in association with a plurality of positions to which the user moves the line of sight. Specifically speaking, it is not taken into consideration which region of the captured image the line of sight of the user is positioned, according to the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1. Therefore, the recorded image includes a region to which the user does not pay attention. This may make it difficult to quickly retrieve the region to which the user pays attention and output the region to a monitor or the like, after the image capturing. Here, when a diagnosis is made in the medical field or the like, it is necessary to capture accurate images of the change in the facial expressions of the person to be diagnosed while the person who makes a diagnosis and the person to be diagnosed talk to each other. According to the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1, however, it is only the position of the line of sight of the person who makes a diagnosis (i.e. the user) which is monitored. Therefore, it may be difficult to capture an image which accurately shows the change in the facial expression of the person to be diagnosed and output such an image.